Post by Tamrin on Jul 2, 2008 21:29:00 GMT 10
Both 'lodge' and 'guild' are rather nebulous terms. Indeed, the term 'lodge,' as a reference to an organization, is not found until the 16th century and is conspicuous by its absence in the English, 1388 parliamentary calls for returns from, firstly, the 'Masters and Wardens of all gilds and brotherhoods,' and the second for copies of any charters or letters patent, if any, from the, 'Masters and Wardens and Overlookers of all the Mysteries and Crafts'.
The term 'lodge,' in reference to an organization, is subsequent to the rise of fraternities sometimes called 'journeymen’s lodges'. Of these 'lodges' we read (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1962, v.10, p.966):
The term 'lodge,' in reference to an organization, is subsequent to the rise of fraternities sometimes called 'journeymen’s lodges'. Of these 'lodges' we read (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1962, v.10, p.966):
In the 14th century the journeymen or yeomen began to set up fraternities in defence of their rights. The formation of these societies marks a cleft within the ranks of some particular class of artisans—a conflict between employers, or master artisans, and workmen. The journeymen combined to protect their special interests, notably as regards hours of work and rates of wages, and they fought with the masters over the labour question in all its aspects. The resulting struggle of organized bodies of masters and journeymen was widespread throughout western Europe, but it was more prominent in Germany than in France or England. This conflict was indeed one of the main features of German Industrial life in the 15th century. In England the fraternities of journeymen, after struggling for a while for complete independence, seem to have fallen under the supervision and control of the masters’ gilds; in other words, they became subsidiary or affiliated organs of the older craft fraternities.Because of the prevalence of women and their acceptance of lower wages and relatively high productivity, the 'journeymen’s lodges', fearing for their own prospects, agitated for their exclusion, and that of foreigners, from most trades in the late middle ages. Claudia Opitz described tension over pay rates towards the end of the middle ages (p.302), saying:
The competition between various interest groups raged all the more fiercely, especially when times were hard. Journeymen played a key role in these battles; since female maids and apprentices earned a third less on average, the men fought successfully to have them excluded from virtually all guilds by the end of the Middle Ages.Claudia Opitz, 1992, ‘Life in the Late Middle Ages,’ in C. Klapische-Zuber (Editor), A History of Women in the West: Vol. II, Silences of the Middle Ages, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts.
